Joint Statement: “Mass Disqualification” is the Title of the First Stage of Union Elections

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

As soon as the executive regulations of Trade Union Law No. 213 of 2017 were issued, with their clear violations of the right to organize, the compliance phase began, along with the usual practices of the Ministry and Directorates of Manpower hostile to the right to organize.
Employees waited for each union to prepare papers and submit them to the Ministry of Manpower. Under strict conditions for independent unions and lenient ones for the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) unions, these employees would invent any reason not to accept the papers. Even the 60 days allocated for compliance ended with only 108 unions successfully regularizing their status while insisting on not joining the government union, according to a report by the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS).

Vital unions, such as the Real Estate Tax, Egyptian Telecom, Library of Alexandria, and Alexandria Independent Teachers Syndicate, were forced at the end of the period to send their papers to the Ministry of Manpower via a bailiff after exhausting all legally stipulated means of submission.
As soon as the compliance period ended, the unions began the first stage of the elections.
The disqualification of undesirable unionists began, whether from independent unions that could regularize their status or grassroots unions affiliated with the ETUF.

The election supervisors are working to deprive workers in all locations of any voice that might defend them. The existence of more than 1,500 appeals in Cairo alone is clear evidence of this intention. Even unionists from independent unions who reluctantly joined the general unions affiliated with the government union, hoping to continue defending workers and their rights, were disqualified from the elections, nullifying all agreements with the government unions.

For instance, Hany Afifi was disqualified from the Public Transport Authority union after agreeing to join the General Union of Land Transport, headed by El-Gebaly. Similarly, unionists from the Sianco company faced disqualification. The election committees also demoted some candidates from heads of union committees to committee members, such as Ismail El-Ashry in the Public Transport Authority union and Khaled El-Bahnasy in Military Factory 63. The events with the Professional Union of Drivers in Qalyubia on Wednesday, May 23, clearly demonstrate their biases towards unions that do not represent or defend workers.

Although the union complied with regulations on April 3, 2018, making Gebaly El-Maraghy furious as it opened the door to establishing unions independent of his, all unionists who applied for board membership were disqualified. The response to their appeal stated that the head of the general committee supervising the elections excluded the union’s papers due to the Ministry of Manpower’s illegality in receiving the deposit papers of independent unions, avoiding duplication of union committees for one entity, and not accepting candidacy papers of independent union committees except for the original union committee for land transport workers, provided their status had been regularized. When unionists attempted to discuss this with the head of the general committee, he called the police, accusing them of assault. They were arrested, but all were released except Mohamed Naguib Abdel Rahman, who was detained for prosecution.
The appeal response raises many questions: What law are they applying? What is the role of the head of the general committee’s-committee in the elections if the union has complied with regulations? Who declared the land transport union the original union?

These questions highlight their failure to implement even their law and executive regulations, violating the right to organize. It raises doubts about the election’s integrity and suggests widespread falsification of workers’ will and intimidation of unionists seeking the truth behind their disqualification.

The Ministry of Manpower continued these violations by delaying the opening of electoral committees or not opening them on election day. For example, candidates for the Railway Workers’ Union Committee filed a report due to the absence of Manpower employees until ten in the morning on election day at the Sharabeya workshops.

The undersigned salute the true union leaders for their steadfastness against attempts to falsify workers’ will. They affirm their solidarity with the struggling unionists, the right of workers to unions that represent and defend them, and support the lawsuit filed before the Administrative Court of the State Council challenging the exclusion of the Professional Union Committee for Tourism Workers in Cairo from the elections.

They also reject the security practices that have interfered in the union elections, placing them under security control.

First: Parties and political entities:

Socialist Popular Alliance Party
Bread and Freedom Party (under establishment)
Revolutionary Socialists Movement
Egyptian Socialist Party
Workers’ Struggle Front

Second: Civil society organizations and human rights centers:
Legal Cooperative for Supporting Labor Awareness
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms
Your Union Consultant Initiative

Third: Unions and labor movements:
Tourism Workers’ Union in Cairo
Independent Egyptian Journalists Syndicate
General Union of Spinning and Weaving Workers in Beheira
Spinning and Weaving Union in Kafr El-Dawar
Spinning and Weaving Workers’ Union in Kom Hamada
Front for the Defense of Journalists and Freedoms
Coordination Committee for Following Up on the Regularization of Trade Union Organizations and Labor Elections for 2018